‘He had this guy murdered’: Lindsey Graham pins blame on Saudi crown prince for missing journalist wapo.st/2CRcVQK?tid=ss… I seem to have been wrong about how Americans would react to this.
I thought, the US barely raised an eyebrow when the Saudis killed 16,700 Yemeni civilians, with eight million more on the verge of starvation, suffering from the worst cholera outbreak in modern memory. Saudis have targeted and destroyed schools, markets,
half of Yemen's health facilities, in a campaign of savagery where the victims, overwhelmingly, are children, the ill, the elderly and the handicapped. Pregnant women and nursing mothers are at particularly high risk of starvation and sickness.
Using weapons we've sold them, the Saudis have destroyed Yemen's water and transport infrastructure, food production and distribution, roads and transport, schools, cultural monuments, clinics and hospitals, and houses, fields and flocks.
The country has been littered with landmines and other explosive devices, making the ploughing of fields impossible. Pompeo, according to the WSJ, “overruled concerns from most of the state department specialists ...who were worried about the rising civilian death toll in Yemen”
Reportedly, he overruled the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour, and the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration.
The Saudi regime has one of the worst human rights records in the world: This is no secret. It amputates hands and feet as a punishment fir robbery, it flogs citizens for "sexual deviance" and drunkenness. Rape victims have been sentenced to lashings as adulteresses.
It tortures to extract forced confessions of guilt. It imposes the death penalty for murder, rape, armed robbery, drug use, apostasy, adultery, witchcraft and sorcery. The executions may be carried out by beheading with a sword, stoning or firing squad, followed by crucifixion.
It's the destination country for men and women trafficked for the purposes of slave labour and commercial sexual exploitation. Saudi women, under the guardianship system, are treated as minors. Authorities systematically discriminate against women and religious minorities.
None of this struck us as a reason to reconsider our relationship with KSA; I couldn't see why Kashoggi's case would inspire more significant outrage. Yet it as. Why? Is it because the Washington Post has a loud megaphone?
A shame they didn't use it more often for Yemenis--and other Saudis--living under this cruel, barbaric, anachronism of a country. I'm not sure that's the only difference. What do you think it is? Why, suddenly, are we interested in what is, frankly, just one more outrage?
Do we imagine Yemeni schoolkids who didn't have those connections to the Washington Post just didn't want to live just as much as he did? Don't dislike being killed as much as we would? That's not logical.
But what's your theory? Something has to explain this.
But what's your theory? Something has to explain this.
Perhaps it was just the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. And if so, it's long overdue. But we cannot at once claim to represent freedom and decency in the world and be united at the hip with the Saudis. We have to choose.
Unfortunately, there's only one thing worse than the KSA--a KSA that's a fanatical enemy of the United States. I suspect fear of what could be worse has prompted us to overlook a great many sins. But that never works out, long term.
